If there was a 0-0 ever written before the game started, the one I did yesterday was the one. U14 girls on a huge field. One team would try to advance by passing and the other with boom-ball.
The only interesting thing was that the center ref said a couple of interesting things, one: -that calls in the box were his, not ours and that calls on our side out of touch were our responsibility and that he would back us up. Still there was little in terms of action. Maybe one chance to score each.
Also, he called every possible handling call. I agree that those balls that go for 30 yards and then hit a hand should be called but if someone stikes it and the opponent is right there, hits the hand unintentionally, I do not call it but he did.
Still nothing else to comment, fairly lame game.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
More rain on Sunday
Saturday's promise of rain made it evident that Sunday was going to be a soaker, and it was. The game I had was an AR for a U11 match. I am not sure why exactly we have ARs for such low level games (it was a 3-0 but it should have been something like 10-0). One team just had their stuff together and the other could not put together two passes. They rarely crossed midfield.
It was just cold and wet enough to be uncomfortable and the non-challenging nature of the match made it all worse. The one positive aspect was that the other AR mentioned that I was too loose with my flag, as in, not keeping it at my side when not making a call (throw in, offside, goal kick or corner).
That alone was worth the miseable time. I was soaked after the match, but I had to stay as my son played immediately after. Fortunately the rain let up at the start of his match and did not resume until his match was over. So that made it 6 matches for the weekend. Too many in my book, especially 5 in one day. Not planning on doing that again.
This weekend looks tame, two adult AR matches on Saturday afternoon and that is it. On Sunday, it is Mother's day and there are two women I must tend to, so no reffing then.
It was just cold and wet enough to be uncomfortable and the non-challenging nature of the match made it all worse. The one positive aspect was that the other AR mentioned that I was too loose with my flag, as in, not keeping it at my side when not making a call (throw in, offside, goal kick or corner).
That alone was worth the miseable time. I was soaked after the match, but I had to stay as my son played immediately after. Fortunately the rain let up at the start of his match and did not resume until his match was over. So that made it 6 matches for the weekend. Too many in my book, especially 5 in one day. Not planning on doing that again.
This weekend looks tame, two adult AR matches on Saturday afternoon and that is it. On Sunday, it is Mother's day and there are two women I must tend to, so no reffing then.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Painful reminders
That is what you get the morning after when you do 5 matches on Saturday. My legs ache quite a bit but in a strange way, it feels good.
The first two matches were adult league matches in a very well kept field about 15 minutes from home. What is interesting is that those fields are well kept because they normally close them at the first hint of rain, and yesterday we had a few sprinkles, and a constant threat of showers with thunderstorms all day long that never materialized. Anyway, the games were tame, but they were interesting plays. One involved me where I signaled an offside, and the center (the same one that I helped with his 8 to 7 assessment late last season) signals me down. He is so laxidasical in his motions that he really never gives off a air of control, though his matches never really get too out of hand.
At halftime he tells me first that it was a direct pass from a goal kick and that is why he flagged me down, then he says that it was actually a pass back, so what was it, a direct goal kick or a passback, because it can't be both. And to be truthful, I cannot be 100% sure myself, but I do not think it was either.
The other interesting thing was that the other AR was mimicking my calls all the time, I would signal for a goal kick and he would do the same. I would signal throw in and he would replicate, just weird.
In the afternoon games, they were all very tame. The league is played on huge turf fields and 13 year olds have a hard time scoring as they run out of gas before getting to the goal. In the first match, the game ended 1-1 and one team got like 6 calls for using their hands. The girls kept putting their hands in akward places and one time, the defender tried to chest it down and somehow her arms were over her head and the ball rolled over the arm. I had no choice but to call a penalty. The interesting part was that the team defending the penalty tried to make noise and shout to the penalty taker. I put a stop to that, but the penalty kick sailed over the crossbar.
The other games were also llow scoring affairs, both 1-0 with goals coming over a keeper flub and an offside trap gone wrong. In the one where I was a center, one of the players yelled out a bad word, where I heard it. He was the best player and I carded him but only a yellow. I did not feel like the game needed a red card at all. It turns out he was yelling it to his sister for taunting him when he missed a free kick. Funny how these things play out.
So this morning I am aching and have one more match to go. And it is rainy, gloomy, not exactly the type of day I wanted to have to play, so hopefully something gets suspended. Wish me luck...
The first two matches were adult league matches in a very well kept field about 15 minutes from home. What is interesting is that those fields are well kept because they normally close them at the first hint of rain, and yesterday we had a few sprinkles, and a constant threat of showers with thunderstorms all day long that never materialized. Anyway, the games were tame, but they were interesting plays. One involved me where I signaled an offside, and the center (the same one that I helped with his 8 to 7 assessment late last season) signals me down. He is so laxidasical in his motions that he really never gives off a air of control, though his matches never really get too out of hand.
At halftime he tells me first that it was a direct pass from a goal kick and that is why he flagged me down, then he says that it was actually a pass back, so what was it, a direct goal kick or a passback, because it can't be both. And to be truthful, I cannot be 100% sure myself, but I do not think it was either.
The other interesting thing was that the other AR was mimicking my calls all the time, I would signal for a goal kick and he would do the same. I would signal throw in and he would replicate, just weird.
In the afternoon games, they were all very tame. The league is played on huge turf fields and 13 year olds have a hard time scoring as they run out of gas before getting to the goal. In the first match, the game ended 1-1 and one team got like 6 calls for using their hands. The girls kept putting their hands in akward places and one time, the defender tried to chest it down and somehow her arms were over her head and the ball rolled over the arm. I had no choice but to call a penalty. The interesting part was that the team defending the penalty tried to make noise and shout to the penalty taker. I put a stop to that, but the penalty kick sailed over the crossbar.
The other games were also llow scoring affairs, both 1-0 with goals coming over a keeper flub and an offside trap gone wrong. In the one where I was a center, one of the players yelled out a bad word, where I heard it. He was the best player and I carded him but only a yellow. I did not feel like the game needed a red card at all. It turns out he was yelling it to his sister for taunting him when he missed a free kick. Funny how these things play out.
So this morning I am aching and have one more match to go. And it is rainy, gloomy, not exactly the type of day I wanted to have to play, so hopefully something gets suspended. Wish me luck...
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
A bunch of great matches and one really rough one
Last Saturday, I had 4 good matches, U10 boys and a bunch of U8 matches as well. Those went fine. I felt confident with them. I also had a U12 girls that ended with one team angry at me that I did not call enough fouls against Blue "17" whom they called a fouling machine. I did call 3-4 fouls on her but they wanted every single call. On top of it, it was a close game, 1-0 for Blue and I had to stop the match twice in the second half for serious injuries (ironically, Blue suffered the injuries).
Anyway, I found myself second guessing after the fact. Should I have called more fouls? I did not see them to tell you the truth, but it bugs me if I did miss something important.
I have three ARs this weekend, two on Saturday, adult league and one on Sunday as well as two Centers on Saturday. Hopefully I can put this match in the past and move forward.
Anyway, I found myself second guessing after the fact. Should I have called more fouls? I did not see them to tell you the truth, but it bugs me if I did miss something important.
I have three ARs this weekend, two on Saturday, adult league and one on Sunday as well as two Centers on Saturday. Hopefully I can put this match in the past and move forward.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Is this already getting to me?
I had read on other blogs how those people that ref get to a point when they start getting tired. This weekend, it hit me. I was getting tired of these matches! I certainly hope this feeling was a fluke, and maybe it was because I was not feeling well on Saturday, but it is something I cannot avoid. More to come later but I hope to be more positive in the next post.
Anyway, 3 matches this weekend, two ARs and one C. Nothing terrible to talk about, excpept I worked with one ref that I think has a good style, kind of proper, kind of gruff and kind of no-nonsense. Would love to work with him again.
Anyway, 3 matches this weekend, two ARs and one C. Nothing terrible to talk about, excpept I worked with one ref that I think has a good style, kind of proper, kind of gruff and kind of no-nonsense. Would love to work with him again.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Back from a rest
It has been a couple of weeks and I am back. I did not have time to post my wrap-up from two weeks ago, so here it goes, after a break from a little bit of everything (work mostly).
The night before the start of the season, a friend asked me to go see the NCAA finals and we had some drinks. I am a light-weight for sure and the next morning, I was paying for it dearly. It sucked basically. A splitting headache that did not go away till well after the morning matches were over.
Maybe that is why I handed out three yellow cards that morning! Anyway, the games were interesting in the sense that the first match was between U12 D2 boys and they were good. The match ended 2-1 in favor of the local team. Well played, two out of character challenges that earned yellow cards (one for each team) but in general, well played. The first goal was scroed on a borderline offensive foul, the defending coach certainly thought so, but it seemed fair enough to me, so it counted.
In the second match, there was a superior team and an inferior team, but the superior team had 7 players (in U12 it is 8v8) and the inferior team has 4 subs to boot. So one team was always fresh and the other had to run a lot more. Nothing too critical in this match except one of the boys on the 8 boy team fell while the ball was rolling out of bounds for a corner kick and just reach out and grabbed the ball while in play (beside the corner flag). It must have been a brain fart on his behalf, but it was intentional handling, so in the book he went.
The other one was the 7 boy team had a nice play where it was lobbed and it seemed like a one on one but the attacker never got control of the ball, the goalie came out and they collided. It really did not look like a penalty to me or a foul on the attacker. It was a weird case of a collision where both players were going for the ball and were unaware of each other in some weird way. I could not bring myself to call it one way or another, so after the players were tended to, I had a dropped ball. The attacking coach had other things to say, but hey, what do they know, right? In the end that game went 0-0.
This weekend I have 3 U14 matches, two ARs and one center. Should be another interesting set of matches. See you out in the field.
The night before the start of the season, a friend asked me to go see the NCAA finals and we had some drinks. I am a light-weight for sure and the next morning, I was paying for it dearly. It sucked basically. A splitting headache that did not go away till well after the morning matches were over.
Maybe that is why I handed out three yellow cards that morning! Anyway, the games were interesting in the sense that the first match was between U12 D2 boys and they were good. The match ended 2-1 in favor of the local team. Well played, two out of character challenges that earned yellow cards (one for each team) but in general, well played. The first goal was scroed on a borderline offensive foul, the defending coach certainly thought so, but it seemed fair enough to me, so it counted.
In the second match, there was a superior team and an inferior team, but the superior team had 7 players (in U12 it is 8v8) and the inferior team has 4 subs to boot. So one team was always fresh and the other had to run a lot more. Nothing too critical in this match except one of the boys on the 8 boy team fell while the ball was rolling out of bounds for a corner kick and just reach out and grabbed the ball while in play (beside the corner flag). It must have been a brain fart on his behalf, but it was intentional handling, so in the book he went.
The other one was the 7 boy team had a nice play where it was lobbed and it seemed like a one on one but the attacker never got control of the ball, the goalie came out and they collided. It really did not look like a penalty to me or a foul on the attacker. It was a weird case of a collision where both players were going for the ball and were unaware of each other in some weird way. I could not bring myself to call it one way or another, so after the players were tended to, I had a dropped ball. The attacking coach had other things to say, but hey, what do they know, right? In the end that game went 0-0.
This weekend I have 3 U14 matches, two ARs and one center. Should be another interesting set of matches. See you out in the field.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Looking forward to this weekend
It is late, and I am tired after a brutal week at work, but I am excited about the start of the season this weekend. Regardless, I have done some matches already, the day in and day out type start this weekend.
I am happy that my strategy to work with more local people this season seems to be working out. One assignor (the one that assigns for the turf fields 5 miles from home) states that he has me on matches pretty much all spring long. He has me down for 7 of the weekends. And I was just assigned matches for the adult league close by as well. That works for me because the money is great and it is not 35 miles away like I used to do for the other adult league.
Anyway, hope to be able to represent well this season and to pick up the number of matches I do this season.
I am happy that my strategy to work with more local people this season seems to be working out. One assignor (the one that assigns for the turf fields 5 miles from home) states that he has me on matches pretty much all spring long. He has me down for 7 of the weekends. And I was just assigned matches for the adult league close by as well. That works for me because the money is great and it is not 35 miles away like I used to do for the other adult league.
Anyway, hope to be able to represent well this season and to pick up the number of matches I do this season.
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